Average UK salary. How you getting on?

[RedSquirrel111]

Thought it would be interesting to hear off the average, and not the mumsnet six figures- can't afford to live

Average UK salary for full time workers 2021 was £31,285

I'm very slightly higher on £33k with potential end of year bonus up to £2k

• live in North West
• insurance broker
• no partner or children
• own home (with mortgage)
• comfortable but a bit worried about increased cost of living.

Generally I feel quite lucky. I can't afford luxuries, but I don't worry about basic necessities - don't really budget for food costs etc.

How does your average wage look? What's the job sector? Do you struggle? What area?

FE teacher running a department. 32,500. 25 years experience.

Anyway, DH on similar, perhaps a bit less. Two teens.

Ok at the moment, we are not huge spenders though. Food shopping is definitely higher each week as is petrol. Higher energy bills will not kill us but it would mean having to be careful.

@justustwoandmoo I've asked for my post to be removed as I didn't read the last line of the OP, but not sure why you've picked on me when mine is much closer to average than others and I followed up to say I was average a year a go.

Single parent, full time teacher and live in Hove, Sussex. Just under £40k. Every month is a struggle. Still paying solicitor for divorce ....

I’m a lone parent living in the south east and earn around 28k across 2 jobs (one employed and one self employed) it is a bit of a struggle at times and I’m really nervous about the costs of energy - I’m already £80 in debit and it’s only January 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[quote TracyMosby]**@eca80* National average is meaningless given the wide differences is cost of living across the country.* That was the entire point of the thread! Op asked, quite clearly i thought, what those people on the uk average salary were finding life to be like in different points of the country.[/quote]
It was, it’s how people manage on the UK average in different areas but some posters just can’t seem to accept that!

@blueshoes

Crazy to me that some of you are on such high salaries yet lack basic comprehension ??

You'd be amazed how many people don't read properly, rich and poor. Only rich get attacked if you are on this thread (not average, that's ok if you are average). Poor is fine.

Because whilst OP has said average so you’re right lower earners weren’t invited, they did specifically say not six figures etc as these threads always turn into that

'There always seems to be too much month at the end of my money.'

God, yes. That's it exactly.
It's over two weeks until my payday.
Two fucking weeks.

26k, work full time in financial services, Wales.

Similar to other posters, I could earn 5k more if I jumped ship but I'm happy where I am. I've WFH throughout, not been forced into the office and that is very different to many I know in similar jobs. Better the devil you know.

No kids, I don't drive and I also have a couple of lodgers which covers the mortgage and council tax. I'm comfortable but I'm very aware that that's mainly from the extra income from the lodgers. Without that I would have to cut back on some of my spending and be a bit more conscious of what I spent on food etc.

I'm lucky I was able to buy when I did. House prices have rocketed in my area in the last 2 years and it's much harder now for first time buyers.

I work in the charity sector and earn around £27000. If I do overtime it can go up to £33 - but that's not guaranteed. DH retired from his p/t job a year earlier and has a pension that brings us back up to what we were on before he retired - he was desperately unhappy so it was a decision we made together.

Our 'pension' is our house. We have made a lot of money on it and live in a place which will only see house prices drop hugely if an asteroid hits it.
It's not easy as such but we do manage. One ds at university and one dd about to go to sixth form, so we are aware that there will still be costs and I will continue with possibly a few small salary increases over the next ten years before I retire. Pension will be small but we had years of being very very poor, so can easily adapt.

@WildImaginings

26k, work full time in financial services, Wales.

Similar to other posters, I could earn 5k more if I jumped ship but I'm happy where I am. I've WFH throughout, not been forced into the office and that is very different to many I know in similar jobs. Better the devil you know.

No kids, I don't drive and I also have a couple of lodgers which covers the mortgage and council tax. I'm comfortable but I'm very aware that that's mainly from the extra income from the lodgers. Without that I would have to cut back on some of my spending and be a bit more conscious of what I spent on food etc.

I'm lucky I was able to buy when I did. House prices have rocketed in my area in the last 2 years and it's much harder now for first time buyers.

Sorry forgot to mention: 30 and single. The 26k is pre tax. I take home just over £1,600 a month after NI, tax, student loan etc- my pension is awful, I really should up my contributions and this is one of my very few 'resolutions' for this year.

The extra income from lodgers is about 6k a year total.

DH is on 17k, should be more but his work are utter crap and keep not giving him shifts and not paying him (even though they’re meant to as it’s not a zero hours contract). So that’s a bit shit and stressful at the moment. I’m on 21k. So although we are both lower than average, we scrape in 38k between the two of us.

It’s tough going and I worry about money A LOT. Nearly every day. DH lost a good airport job paying 33k plus extras when Covid hit. Before then we were comfortable, since then we’ve really struggled. We have a bit of his redundancy money left but it’s going down and down each month as we aren’t actually bringing in enough to live on. We get no benefits or tax credits as our children are grown up, but still young enough to be living with us, need help etc. DD finishes uni this year so that will help.

I keep seeing the bills going up and up and wonder what’s going to have to give. We had a cheap week’s holiday before Christmas (£600 all in for 4 of us) and we shouldn’t have done, we really didn’t have the money for it when it came to. We will have to forego a holiday this year unless we can find some cheap camping. Our house is colder than I’d like and I’m looking at the food shop thinking I’m going to have to meal plan very tightly until things improve. We live in the South where everything is pricey which doesn’t help.

It really annoys me on here when people say “I have a good degree, worked hard at school and earn ? Yes, so did I do well at school, so do I have a good degree. But circumstances have conspired against us the last few years. There’s a degree of luck involved, and it doesn’t help if you come from a very poor family with no connections - I’ve realised as an adult that growing up in a comfortable family where there is money and experience of good jobs, going to private school, having a bit of family support behind you when you do your degree, having parents who are doctors or bankers or accountants - all these make so much more difference than people ever realise.

But yes, there’s too much month at the end of the money at the moment.

Other than where we live (Wales for me) my vital stats are almost exactly the same as yours OP ! Although I don't get bonuses, but am assured of a pay rise over the next 7 years until I get to the top of my band. Like you I could possibly earn a bit more but appreciate the CS pension and REALLY appreciate the flexitime and all the holidays.

I'm lucky in that I don't really struggle at all for money - but then I've always been a saver not a spender, so I try not to be smug about it - I just don't have a particular desire for 'things' and treats like my sister/some friends do, so I'm not being worthy managing to save instead as it's easy for me. I'm not a complete miser and if there's something I fancy I treat myself, but I'm just not a buyer. I've currently got quite a bit of savings (relative compared to mumsnetters who have millions in different schemes!) but it's all earmarked because I want to move house to a nicer area, but prices have gone insane the last year!

Have been WFH the last 2 years, but tbh it's probably cost me more than saved, as I was within walking distance of my office before, and have had to spend way more on heating when I'm in the house all day.

@SleepyMathematician I think many folk who have parents in professions or access to money and connections have no idea what a leg up that gives them. I've only ever agreed with one thing Michael Gove has said, "rich thick kids do better than poor clever ones".

Yup agree Pup. They just don't see it. When its your "normal" you dont see what its like without.

Self employed. I was on maternity leave for part of 2021 then it took me time to scale up my work. I would expect to earn 24,000 working part of the time this year. If I was to work full time I would earn about double the national average. However it wouldn’t be possible for me to work full time due to childcare at the moment.

[quote PupInAPram]@SleepyMathematician I think many folk who have parents in professions or access to money and connections have no idea what a leg up that gives them. I've only ever agreed with one thing Michael Gove has said, "rich thick kids do better than poor clever ones".[/quote]
Very true. And the comments upthread prove JUST HOW THICK some people can be. How someone could be bright enough to earn megabucks but not realise why it's inappropriate to derail this thread in the way that certain posters have, I don't know.

Or maybe they know exactly why it's inappropriate, and they just don't give a shit because they care more about establishing their superiority than anything else.

Earn £28,000 as a single parent with only DD20 at home. She's still at college (slight learning disability so a few years behind her actual age) but I get no financial support for her anymore but she's still classed as a dependent and my income is used to calculate her student funding the fact that her dad has no financial/moral/social obligations to her & has taken full advantage of that is another thread

I'm in a HA property & while the rent is cheaper than private it's not a massive difference (& has increased by 13% in 5 years) & my CT band is high for the type of property in the area as it's a newish build.

To get that salary for my role I need to work outwith my local area & public transport is crap so a car is a necessity - I'm approx £300 for fuel to work every month.

We do ok but I'm starting to consider if we really need the heating on, need to use the dryer (live in a flat with no garden so it's either dryer or heating on if we want clothes dried), need to visit my parents, weighing up the additional fuel costs to travel to the cheaper supermarket or just go to the slightly more expensive one that's closer & save on fuel.

I'm definitely worried about the increased fuel & food costs & the fact that my rent, CT & NI will all increase in April.

@WhoAre

We all have the same 24 hours in a day though remember 🙄

Yes but it’s a very different 24 hours as a young person at college or uni when you’re working 20-30 hours a week on top of your degree/ A levels, in a shop or fast food restaurant on min wage because your parents have no conncections and can’t afford to support you, to having everything paid for you and being able to use that time working towards either your first class honours or to volunteer a few hours in Daddy’s banking firm, so that by the time you come out of studying you already have a nice job lined up. Or when you’re struggling through your A levels or degree but your family are having a go at you constantly for being a lazy student who can’t be bothered to get a job in the real world at 16 like they all did. It happens. It happened when I was young and it still happens.

People really don’t see inequality and how poorer kids are disadvantaged right from the start, and what a leg up those from comfortable families have. When you have privilege you don’t always see it because you don’t realise that some of the things you thought were normal are actually privilege.

@CSJobseeker and @PupInAPram, absolutely agree.

@ChannelTheCalmaLlama

I earn roughly 5 times that. But, I am a lone parent with a huge mortgage on a normal sized family home (no spare bedrooms or anything) and massive childcare costs, which between them take up the vast majority of my salary after tax. The tax on higher incomes is huge.

I can heat the house and buy us decent food so we're lucky compared to many but it annoys me that people think high salary = living it up because it's just not the case. So much taken in tax, no help whatsoever with childcare etc even though it's just me paying for everything.

We need to live where we live or I couldn't earn what I do anyway, and here is where the children are settled and I have the support network of friends that I really need for emergencies.

We live in the SE. I am worried how we'll manage if nursery bills/ food/ tax etc go up again, which I expect they will. 😣

If I can survive the next few years until my childcare costs go down, we will be ok. But for our household there is very little disposable income atm.

Can I ask what your job is?

I used to make £34k, DH £24k. I've made a massive jump, but I think we lived in the grey area between struggling and a bit comfortable. We have 4 DC, pay nursery for one, a cat, a dog, and a mortgage of close to £1200. SW where houses are expensive and salaries low.

I earn £27k as a teacher in my second year.

Live in the South with a hefty mortgage! I had my children first and returned to teaching full-time at 37.

It's interesting, the dynamic of perceived jealousy against high earners (on Mumsnet, in particular).
I am a bang average earner for the UK, as an NHS nurse.
I can't imagine how anyone on an average wage could possibly not feel envy of salaries of 60/70k and above.

No one is naive enough to think that money alone can make life perfect, but not having to worry, budget and penny pinch every day must be lovely.

If you express these thoughts, someone always comes along to ask why you 'chose' to enter nursing as a profession, or similar.

It feels deliberately obtuse for the high earners on this thread to affect faux surprise that this isn't the thread for them.